Turboprops

Waco, Texas-based Blackhawk Modifications announced at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a new engine upgrade program for the Cessna 208A Caravan and 208B Grand Caravan. The new program replaces the 600-horsepower and 675-horsepower Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines of those airplanes with an 867-horsepower PT6A-140 engine. While no numbers are available yet, Blackhawk said the upgrade […]

Hartzell Propeller Inc announced that the introduction of its five-blade prop designed for Daher-Socata’s TBM series of single-engine turboprops has been very successful, with an average of five customers trading out their propellers each month — a number that exceeds Hartzell’s expectations. But the performance improvements provided by the prop, which comes standard on the […]

When French company Socata launched the single-engine turboprop TBM 700 with Mooney in 1989, many observers wondered if the airplane would ever be anything more than an aerial oddity. That’s before people began to operate it and realized the many benefits of having a single Pratt & Whitney PT6 up front. That first TBM was […]

Want the very best combination of speed, range, and load-carrying capacity? A single-engine turboprop like those in the TBM series makes a great choice. Here’s a brief look at how the TBM 900 stacks up against its competitors in the turboprop and owner-flown jet market. [Historical data and pricing have been preserved for the record.] […]

Piaggio Aero Industries, the maker of the uniquely shaped P.180 Avanti, announced major modifications to the twin-turboprop pusher, creating a new model named the Avanti Evo. With several aerodynamic modifications to the airplane, the Evo promises significant performance improvements translating into a 17 percent range increase, which allows the Evo to travel as far as […]

Beechcraft celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the King Air Model 90 with cake at the company’s Sun ‘n Fun exhibit and a fly-over at the Beech factory in Wichita, Kansas. The first flight of the King Air on January 20, 1964, started a remarkable production run for a remarkable airplane that […]

Lancair has introduced a new option for the Evolution turboprop kit airplane called “rough service landing gear,” or RSLG for short. The new gear allows pilots to land the four-seat composite airplane at airports with unpaved runways without fear of damaging the gear. The new landing gear option has wide 12-ply Goodyear tires, which are […]

Continental Motors plans to bring the Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II back into production after acquiring the type certificate, inventory and manufacturing rights for the twin from Reims Aviation of France. Continental says it is partnering with ASI Innovation in France on the unpressurized, 14-passenger twin, first introduced by Reims Aviation in 1983. Once production resumes, […]

Daher-Socata unveiled its latest upgrade for the TBM series yesterday, the TBM 900. Retaining the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D engine rated at 850 shaft horsepower, the new model has improved performance based on aerodynamic optimization of the airframe and the engine air intake configuration. It also comes with a new five-blade composite propeller […]

Propeller maker Hartzell has gotten the FAA’s approval for a new five-blade composite prop for existing Socata TBMs, from the 700 though the 850 series. We flew the new prop on a TBM 700 last month and were impressed by its smooth operation, great runway performance and impressive climb rates. Hartzell president Joe Brown says […]